Idle time process

A cpu is called in idle state if it doesnt do any work.an operating system always wait for the interrupt and event so that it can execute it from cpu .a cpu execute ghz of instructions per second .a user can type only 100 or 150 words per minute or can open 1 or 2 programs in a second.as you can see user is very slow as compared to cpu .cpu will execute some instruction and remaining cpu clock will be wasted without doing any usefull work . Cpu work like a infinite loop. No matter you execute something or not ,cpu will always work . when we do nothing on cpu it doesnt mean its doing nothing .cpu is running its clock and it will continue. In other words if we do nothing on computer we are wasting cpu clocks but doing no usefull work . Cpu clock is the rate at which instruction execute.in idle state not only the cpu but also the bus clock doing nothing . (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/clock_speed.html)

However we can consume cpu clock by some technique and can achieve some usefull work at idle state . there are 3 levels where we can process at idle state. 1. Operating system level 2. Application level 3. Hardware level

Operating system always wait for an event to occur or always wait for some input from the user .so to do some usefull task in idle state operating system. At idle time os execute some special process called idle task . task shedular handle the process which process to execute first . task shedular handle idle state in several ways task shedular runs after every 15 mints in windows .in every 15 mints it check is there any interruption from user via a keyboard and mouse. If there is no interruption computer is said to be idle . Previous to windows 7 a computer is said to be idle if there is no interruption or event,and all the process and disk are idle in last 15 mints .in windows 7 computer is said to be idle if it is running low priority application If(threadPriodity<normal) { Cpu is idle } but there is one exception if computer is running presentation application then computer will not be in considered as idle state . http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/windows/desktop/aa383561(v=vs.85).aspx

in microsoft windows there is service called system idle process which is not actually a process is is basically a counter that counts how much cpu is in idle state like if it shows 99 its mean 99%. If task can be started when computer enters idle state by defining idle trigger A trigger will trig a task when computer idle state when computer enter idle state

Idle trigger
idle trigger is a set of criteria when met start execute a task.in Microsoft windows task shedular provide both time based trigger and event based trigger .

time based trigger start at specified time. Event based start a task in response to a event

With the time based trigger we can set a tast to start when computer is idle for more than 30 mints.so 30 mints is the idle waittime of the task. But with events based we can start a task at specific events like we can run a program at logon automatically. Idle task usally are like windows defragment utility ,restore point and cleanup utility.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa383619(v=vs.85).aspx

http://askville.amazon.com/System-Idle-Process/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=7197942

15 mints

Task start

processidle task api;

we discussed some processs idle task like drfragment ,diskcleanup utility and restored point . these task are of very low priority even a mouse event can preempt this processes . in microsoft all these idle task are ccontrolable by api advapi.dll the purpose of this api is to forcly execute the pending task we can call this api from cammandline rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,processidle task

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463004.aspx

application level

application programmer can also exrcute task when cpu is idle for example aotumatic scanning in antiviruses is example.idle time scan can be hard coded in the program and sometimes you can change it .

antivirus like Norton antivirus provides idle time scanning and we can also define the duration of idle time out scan https://www-secure.symantec.com/norton-support/jsp/helpsolutions.jsp?docid=v16052251_NIS_Retail_2012_en_us&lg=english&ct=united% 20states&product=home&version=1&pvid=f-home

programmers can manuly set the condition and can exexute process through performancecounter cpucounter; cpucounter.countername=%processor time; if(cpuCounter.nestvalue <10) startprocess();

application software like presentation software must use ES_Display_Required which applies to desktop application only. Which reset the display idle timer preventing display off. Those multimedia application and presention software which shows screen aniations or video use this function to show screen as long as program is running
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa373208(v=vs.85).aspx

Hardware level

Today hardware also providing technique to handle idle state .most of the devices are handheld or portable . when we talk about processor we represent idle state as c state there are many c states like c0 ,c1 ,c2 etc C0 is operational state means e t is doing useful work c1 is idle state and c2 c3 are also idle state. From the hardware point of view we talk about the portion cpu which is idle . There are 3 cstate of the cpu we can divide 1. Core cstate If cpu has multicore then one is idle we can turn of it to save power 2. Processor c state As whole cpu 3 logical c state Its how os see cpu c state
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2008/03/27/update-c-states-c-states-and-even-more-cstates/

so as we know processor running state is called c0.other c states like c1,c2 consume less power but also low performance in c3 state the phase locked loop is shut down to turn off the clock. After that c4 state the voltage to the processor is reduced to avoid leakage .and in mobile devices c5 is deep sleep state in which voltage is reduced further
http://www.intel.com/technology/itj/2008/v12i3/2-paper/4-Power.htm

intel hyperboost technology this is also a buitin technology that dynamically make processor to run faster .depend on the workloead temperature limits. And if the demand is not enough it will automatically slowed down to its normal speed